There is already a functional overload of applications and services available or accessible through a mobile device, and this is by way of a single remote utility provider or carrier. In the future, the problem can be envisioned as becoming only more complex and overwhelming for mobile device users as remote utility providers or carriers become more complex in terms of the number of services offered. What will be needed is a way to sift through the sea of applications and services that will be available from one or more disparate networks, especially if the role of traditional network providers (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile, Sprint, . . . ) lessens, and third party mobile services, content, and applications become more ubiquitous.
Conventional mobile devices have access to a vast amount of remote utilities through a single carrier (e.g., a single remote utility provider). A remote utility can include services, applications, and content provided to a mobile device from a remote location. For example, ringtones, display wallpapers, mobile device games, text messaging services, data update services, synchronization services, or Bluetooth applications, among numerous others, can be provided to a mobile device through the device's primary carrier. Selecting these services, applications, or content can be a complicated process. Moreover, there can be overlap between remote utilities that can cause confusion as to what benefit can be gained by accessing one remote utility in favor of a second remote utility. This can require the user to further research the functional aspects and compatibilities of the various remote utilities to ensure that the user's needs are met by the particular set of remote utilities they select to run on their mobile device.
The wide array of services, applications and content, in addition to determining the particular benefit on any set of these remote utilities can be overwhelming for the end user. Frequently, the end user can merely select a simple and non-optimal set of remote utilities just to reduce the confusion associated with selecting a more optimal set of remote utilities. For example, a user can more easily select standard ringtones and a general news content provider rather than selecting custom ringtones, a map application, a social networking application, and a news content provider that gathers only news stories of particular interest to the mobile device user, where selecting the more complex set of remote utilities presents the user with entering additional information to access the social network, selections on what types of news stories are of interest, and ensuring that the applications will not cause mobile device crashes, among other complicating aspects.
Further, where a particular carrier does not carry a desired remote utility, the mobile device user can be denied access to and enjoyment of the particular remote utility. The mobile device market has begun to respond by offering “open” mobile devices that can access remote utilities from other carriers (e.g., remote utility providers). This can allow the user to access a particular remote utility not offered by a primary carrier, but also can further complicate selection of an available remote utility. This increased complexity can occur both in gaining knowledge of other available third party remote utilities and also in gaining understanding of the functional overlap and particulars of running a third party remote utility.
Where the trend towards greater numbers of remote utilities and open mobile devices continues, the library of available remote utilities can be seen as growing at an extremely high rate. The already vast number of choices in remote utilities can easily be seen to only grow more complex and confusing. Further, in addition to the sheer weight of the number of remote utilities that can become available, there can be an increased burden to proper selection of particular utilities that will run properly on the wide variety of mobile devices in use, and moreover, to ensuring that the desired functionality is optimally selected (e.g., reducing overlap or conflict between employed remote utilities, selecting a remote utility that most closely provides the functionality or information that the user desires, lowest overall cost of a set of remote utilities, . . . ).
It can be envisioned that the trend to increasing numbers and complexity of third party remote utilities can eventually lead to the elimination of primary carriers in the sense that a primary carrier provides the bulk of the remote utilities for a mobile device while third party remote utility providers only fill in missing needs. Where the primary carrier model collapses, nearly all of the remote utilities for mobile devices can be envisioned as being acquired from a huge marketplace of remote utility providers. This can lead to informational overload of the user. A user can be faced with the daunting task of discovering a remote utility in a deep sea of available remote utilities, something like finding a needle in a gigantic haystack.
Where there is conventionally no truly effective means of sifting through the services, applications, and content available to a mobile device user in a post-primary carrier model (and even to large degree in a primary carrier model), it can be presumed that most mobile device users will be using remote utilities that are far from optimal for a particular user's needs. For example, where there are hundreds or thousands of news content sources available, it can be nearly impossible for a mobile device user to select one or two most optimal news content sources based on their particular interests, geographic location, age, sex, health status, form of employment, and income levels, among numerous other factors.
Extending this example, where the mobile device user travels, the optimal selection of a news content provider can significantly change as the user changes locations. Similarly, where the user changes activities (e.g., goes from work to a weekend hiking) the optimal news content provide can be substantially different (e.g., a news content provider that focuses on Wall street news is less optimal than a news content provider that focuses on road conditions and weather in the area the user would be hiking). Where the user can be expected to rarely want to put in the time and effort to keep a news source optimal (or even be capable of properly selecting an optimal remote utility), the sure change in a user's daily life also can ensure that the user's remote utility sections will be sub-optimal.
Additionally, where new remote utilities and new remote utility providers become available, an optimal remote utility can become available for a user without the user ever being aware of the existence of the new remote utility. This can further result from patterns or trends in the user's life being present without the user being aware of them. For example, a mobile device user can buy coffee at a particular shop every day without the user ever thinking about other coffee shops providing the same service at a lower price. Where the user does not observe this pattern, the user is unlikely to access a remote utility that, for example, can track coffee prices of regional coffee shops. However, where such an exemplary remote utility is available, it can be seen that the mobile device user could acquire additional benefit by employing that particular remote utility.
The wide variety of conventionally existing remote utilities, remote utility providers, and the emergence and possible future domination of distributed remote utility providers and the accompanying dearth of additional remote utilities present a daunting challenge to optimized selection of remote utilities for mobile devices and their users. Devices, systems and methodologies are needed to assist in sifting, sorting, and selecting remote utilities for mobile devices in an efficient and more optimal manner. Further, additional benefit and optimization can occur where consideration is made for the dynamic nature of the human experience in regards to the nearly ubiquitous presence of mobile devices in our daily lives. Employing improved and novel devices, systems and methodologies to assist in navigation and selection from the vast quantity of conventional and future remote utilities appropriate and desirable for dynamically changing user contexts under single and distributed carriers can provide an improved user experience.